Moominland Midwinter

Moominland MidwinterMoominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Lyrical, philosophical, beautiful. I have re-read this book aloud to my boys almost every winter since the oldest was 4. This book never fails to capture the mood of winter and is a beautiful parable about accepting life as it is and not as you want it to be. What makes this book really stand out are the characters — Moomintroll’s struggle to accept winter and find his place in it, LittleMy’s chaotic energy, and Too-ticky’s philosophical acceptance of life as it comes, Sorry-oo’s longing for the unattainable and dangerous.

While many of the earlier Moomin books (Comet in Mooninland, Moominsummer Madness) are geared squarely at children, some of the later books are more melancholy and meditative — those are my favorites (Moominland Midwinter and Moominpapa at Sea).

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2 Responses to Moominland Midwinter

  1. Linda Baie says:

    Wow, Katya, I don’t know these books at all. At first, I thought you had a typo or something (te he). They sound great & I could use a little winter about now. We’ve broken heat records five days in a row in Denver. Argh! It is hot! I will definitely check on these books! thanks

  2. kczaja says:

    I’m not sure why they seem to be popular in Europe & Japan but not in America. The books are really wonderful.

    Here we’ve had summer. Then winter. Then spring. And now back to summer. All in the last 10 days.